B&R’s openAutomation 2020 attracts huge participation

As
a global automation player, B&R is committed to provide a platform for
tomorrow’s engineers to learn and explore latest trends. openAutomation
Challenge 2020 was an online event for students interested in developing
innovative ideas focusing on automation, IoT and cloud-based solutions.

The
challenge brought in participation from countries elite colleges with teams
demonstrating innovative ideas. The zest among students at the online
competition was phenomenal with a closely contested final having attractive
prizes up for grabs.   

Around
39 teams from across various Indian states comprising of over 118 students from
17 institutions applied to participate in the event. A team of experts from
industry and academia shortlisted 17 teams based on application concept,
innovativeness and feasibility of the idea. The teams were supported by mentors
with a range of expertise from B&R India. Rigorous workshops on various
topics of automation and OPC UA were conducted enabling students to prepare for
the competition. The 5-day challenge al-lowed teams to bring their idea to life
and showcase them to the jury. At the end, the jury judged the ideas for
innovativeness, complexity, usability, completeness, feasibility and team
effort.

Creating solutions to boost social
issues through technology

Students
displayed sheer commitment in bringing their ideas into a working model. Many
ideas focused on health, agriculture, waste management, warehouse, F&B and
robotics, addressing challenges of sustainable environment and improved process
effectiveness. Machine learning algorithms for fault identification, regression
models for predictive maintenance, machine 3D model rendering, OPC UA for data
monitoring on python and mobile app for analytics were highlights of the
challenge among others. An effective use of B&R technology together with
OPC UA was witnessed by students.

B&R’s cooperation with education
industry

Industries
are undergoing digital transformation for operational excellence with
automation, connectivity through open source technology, IoT and data poised to
play an important role. “At B&R, we have been promoting talent among
engineering community in the context of education in advanced topics of
automation with a view to prepare students for exciting innovations coming in
future. openAutomation Challenge 2020 was focused on latest trends in
automation technology and connectivity,” explained Tanay Sil, Head – Education Network, B&R Industrial Automation,
India. “Through our Education Network program, we pro-mote cooperation
between technical training centres, colleges, universities and B&R.
Automation is an important element in all manufacturing operations and industry
expects new recruits to have basic skills and technology knowledge. Moreover,
in the era of industrial IoT and industry 4.0 technologies evolves rapidly with
engineering curriculum struggling to keep pace. B&R Education Network is a
well-structured program of collaboration to improve the employability of
engineering graduates.”